The devil wears snakeskin

For someone like me who mistook Jimmy Choo for a Chinese restaurant in L.A., I never thought I’d appreciate The Devil Wears Prada.

But The Devil Wears Prada is not all about Prada. It’s not all about fashion and designer clothes, shoes, bags and belts (although it’s a must-see for fashionistas).

A big hit in the US, the movie is also about work ethics – and the lack of it: the abuse of power, power struggle and deception.

Based on the novel of the same title written by Lauren Weisberger, the movie opens with Anne Hathaway as fresh college graduate Andrea (Andy) Sachs applying and eventually getting employed as assistant to Miranda Priestly (as played by Meryl Streep), who is editor of the fashion magazine Runway.

It is actually Andy’s ambition to join the world of print and working for Miranda is supposed to be the best training ground in the world because the Runway editor is a very demanding boss. Just how demanding can she get? The job requirements vary, from fetching the lady boss’ coffee – "very hot" – in the morning (which isn’t really tough) to getting a plane to fly in the middle of a hurricane.

Miranda is also cold and distant and dumps all her instructions to her assistants all at the same time with so much indifference. Her character is supposedly inspired by Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who once worked with the book’s author and obviously their parting was bitter.

The rest of the film shows how Andy Sachs survives that kind of work environment where you have to be on your toes, which I assume isn’t all that easy when you are wearing inches-high designer shoes.

Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs does a neat acting job in the movie, but it is Meryl Streep – not surprisingly – who stands out because of her magnificent performance as the steely Miranda Priestly. She doesn’t waste any of those quotable lines she is made to deliver in the film because she hits her mark with so much precision each time. Surely, she’ll get another Oscar nomination (her 14th) for The Devil Wears Prada.

Next to Ms. Streep in my list of best performances in the film is British actress Emily Blunt who plays first assistant to Miranda Priestly. Her character is a bit complicated because although there is some meanness and nastiness in her, she couldn’t let Andy Sachs fumble at work because that would reflect on her as the more senior assistant. In most parts, you’ll hate her and yet get amused because she is so effective in her comic/semi-villain role.

Streep, Hathaway, Blunt and the rest of The Devil Wears Prada cast members, of course, owe their fine performances to the direction of David Frankel (Sex in the City) and to the script of Aline Brosh McKenna. Although it is not a laugh-out-loud comedy, the material is still written so cleverly that you are assured of intelligent entertainment in the film set in the frothy and flamboyant world of fashion.

The Devil Wears Prada also serves as a conscience to those who are still making choices in life – especially when dealing with career options – and the film could also have used the title The Devil’s Advocate (although there is already a book) and that would have been very appropriate.

Now on its second week of exhibition is Snakes on a Plane – another box-office hit in the US (and apparently even here in the Philippines).

The movie starts in Hawaii where actor Nathan Philips becomes witness to a sadistic murder. FBI agent Samuel L. Jackson then guards the all-important witness with his life and puts him on a plane to Los Angeles to testify. The people out to get Philips, of course, do everything to eliminate him and that includes putting 500 snakes on the L.A.-bound plane.

Like any film about snakes – from Anaconda to Richard Gomez’s Tuklaw – Snakes on a Plane is campy. In fact, the only way to enjoy the film is to relish its being oh-so-camp. The snakes here are computer-generated and so we have 500 overacting slithering creatures crawling all over the screen.

Of course, a lot of the scenes here are already unbelievable, but then, like I said, just enjoy its being campy and you’re in for an entertaining one hour and so minutes inside the theater.

But is it scary? Well, let’s put it this way: I’ve seen scarier snakes in the local entertainment industry and especially in politics. But I don’t worry about these creatures because I believe in the saying: What you sow is what you reap.

Snakes? They get their comeuppance eventually when they are turned into shoes, bags and belts by Prada.